


because their words had forked no lightning

by apocalypsepoet



Series: do not go gentle into that good night [2]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Time Loop, it's short and sad lol, this is richies fifth attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22873678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apocalypsepoet/pseuds/apocalypsepoet
Summary: Richie Tozier's fifth attempt trying to save Eddie's life.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: do not go gentle into that good night [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1644208
Comments: 1
Kudos: 62





	because their words had forked no lightning

**Author's Note:**

> hey homies! i have a few of these more fleshed out attempts for the ones in ratdotl that have no real end. they are numbers 5, 12, 14, and 19, so stay tuned, maybe? if you wanna :*

_v._

_The moment he meets Eddie’s brown eyes, it’s as if two decades spent apart mean absolutely fucking nothing. His chest fills with the pure, complete, innocent love he felt for his best friend at age thirteen. But it has also grown with time, non-linear as it may be. It is steady, durable—unbreaking. It is as loud and as present as his racing heart and running mouth. He realizes, under the haze of vodka and the warmth of Eddie’s hand in his, that he falls a little harder with each new iteration of events. And he knows right then that he’s completely and utterly fucked._

_“Hey, so did any of you get a sense of deja vu when Mike called? Or was it just me,” he chuckles over Chinese food and shots. Some of the losers shake their heads. Eddie is the first to reply._

_“No, but I crashed my car?”_

Richie blanches. Bill chokes on his drink, again. “No fucking way!” He yells. 

Eddie nods his head enthusiastically. “Yeah! This motherfucker drove right into me. Who the fuck drives a taxi under the influence?”

Mike laughs. “I question your authenticity, Eddie.”

“Fuck you, Michael,” he murmurs behind his glass. The losers laugh. Maybe nothing bad is going to happen, maybe whatever Richie is allegedly remembering is just one big fluke. A huge fucking mistake, or a booze-fueled dream, or maybe just a—

“What the fuck? Why the fucking fuck does my fortune just say ‘Stanley’?”

* * *

The trip back to the townhouse is somber; packed full of terror with a side of betrayal. However, Eddie had all but forced Richie into the passenger side of his ridiculously large Traverse, so it isn’t all bad. He tells Eddie to keep the keys in the fucking car, just in case they need an immediate getaway, and then takes the stairs to the rooms two at a time. He grabs his tiny travel suitcase and starts haphazardly stuffing it with his shit strewn about the room. Once it's zipped shut, he goes to Eddie’s room next door. 

“Take the one closest to the door, I still have to shut the other one. I’ll follow you out.”

“Sir yes sir!” Richie hauls the luggage down the stairs, pointedly ignoring whoever just walked through the door. He and Eddie manage to get their shit in the trunk and then they’re speeding down the now familiar streets. Richie lets out a laugh.

“What?” Eddie chances a glance at him. Richie shakes his head.

“I think I’m going fucking crazy, man.” Eddie frowns.

“If you’re crazy, I’m crazy. The clown made us crazy.” His heart lurches. The fucking clown killed Stanley, like four times already. It killed Stanley, and It killed Eddie, and he wasn’t even there for the last one. Richie was almost positive now, that all of this had happened already; what with how disturbingly vivid the memories came back to him. Just how metallic Eddie’s blood tasted. He squeezes his eyes shut, shivering at the thought. 

“Rich?” Right. Eddie isn’t dead here. Not yet, at least. Not yet, and not if Richie can’t help it, this time around. And he knows, deep down, that he can’t just leave everyone else. He can’t just take Eddie and run; so they’ll turn around and Bev will tell them that if they leave they’ll all die painful deaths, they’ll collect their tokens for a ritual that won’t work, he’ll get caught in the deadlights, Eddie will get impaled—

 _No_. Not this time. Richie can’t afford to think about the four times Eddie has died already. He shakes his head to erase the murky memories. He clears his throat. Turns to Eddie.

“Yeah, we need to go back.” He’s met with silence.

“Richie, what the _fuck_?”

* * *

So, okay. Richie knows the ritual is bullshit at this point. But he can’t really tell Mike that, right? Mike will just think he’s lost his goddamn mind. They’ll probably lock him up with Bowers. How would he even bring it up? Like, ‘hey man, I know your ritual doesn’t work. How, you ask? Well, Mikey, you see, I seem to have taken Bill Murray’s place in _Groundhog Day_.’ Yeah, that would go over super well. The losers might all be a little crazy, but they’re not Phil Connors crazy. 

Except, perhaps, Richard Wentworth Tozier himself. 

This time, when Pennywise corners him in the park, Richie is prepared. He vaguely remembers calling It a sloppy bitch, and that they defeat It in the end, but he can’t remember details. Richie defaults to middle school Trashmouth. It barely gets two words in before Richie is screaming up at It.

“I know this town is homophobic, but you’re on a whole other level, Nickel Knowledge,” he laughs. “You’re just an ugly fucking clown, you know that? And we’re not afraid of you.”

Paul Bunyan chases him all the way back to the townhouse, but he doesn’t seem as big as he should be. And not nearly as fast. But maybe that was just a side effect of growing up.

* * *

Richie doesn’t tell Mike. He doesn’t tell anyone. He does, however, kill spider Stan before it attaches itself to his face, so that’s one point in his favor. With spider Stan dead, Eddie doesn’t freeze, and Bill doesn’t scream at him. He doesn’t stop Richie before they descend further; not needing a pep talk. Richie pulls him to the side anyway.

“Eds, you know you’re brave, right?” 

“Richie, what—”

“You’re braver than you think, but that doesn’t mean you have to be the hero. Be brave, but don’t be stupid.” Richie claps his hand over the bandaged wound on Eddie’s face, wishing he could caress his cheek instead. Eddie flinches and Richie chuckles, removing his hand carefully. Richie gives him a look, as if asking him _‘are you ready?’_ and their seemingly telepathic connection from childhood tethers them to each other once more; Eddie gives a small smile, nodding before Bill calls up for them. Time to follow the leader.

* * *

It’s where they’re confronted with the three doors, holding Eddie’s hand tightly, that Richie comes clean. Not about the fact that he maybe kind of still holds a torch for his best friend, fuck no. He says, “Eddie I am going to sound fucking insane when I tell you this but I really, really need you to believe me.”

“Why wouldn’t I believe you?”

“Because I’m basically Bill Murray in Groundhog Day right now, and that shit is only supposed to happen in movies, man.”

Eddie sucks in a breath, chops his hand through the air and reaches for _Not Scary At All_. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“It’s gonna be a Pomeranian,” he replies, pointing at the door.

“Richie, what the _fuck_ does that mean—” the small dog stares up at the pair expectantly. Tilts its head. Eddie looks at Richie with wide eyes.

“Told you.” He slams the door shut. The tentacle thing that had been chasing them is blocking their way still. Richie reaches for the _Very Scary_ door. “This one’s a closet,” he says, opening it swiftly,“because it’s symbolic, or a–a fucking metaphor for what I’m really afraid of.” As he pulls the string to illuminate the inside, the tentacle vanishes and then they are running full force to the main cavern towards Mike who is screaming for help.

* * *

Richie assaults Pennywise with some rocks, letting Mike escape to Bill. He gets caught in the deadlights. When he hits the ground, he just barely recognizes his surroundings and what is going to happen next. He reaches up and out, meeting Eddie’s chest, but isn’t fast enough to push him completely out of the way, and his arm gets pinned to the ground, then ripped entirely out of its socket. The pair are screaming as Richie hauls Eddie to the hidden alcove across the rocky terrain. Uses his jacket to staunch the blood flow. Bullies Pennywise to death. Carries Eddie out over his shoulders and collapses in the middle of Neibolt Street in time with the house.

Eddie dies from the blood loss, going limp in Richie's arms.

Richie roughly remembers getting black-out drunk on top shelf whiskey in the middle of the afternoon, but he didn’t have Eddie with him then. So, he lays Eddie’s body in the dead grass of the front lawn. He brushes the losers off when they try to get him to go to the quarry, or the townhouse. He doesn’t cry. He lies down next to his best friend, his bravest friend. He shuts Eddie’s eyes, brushes some hair from his face, connects their foreheads. 

It’s nightfall when he finally slips into a dreamless sleep on Neibolt Street.

**Author's Note:**

> im at @thedreadlights on tumblr, come say hey!


End file.
